Feature | Motorhaus Garage
Motorhaus Garage adds to its repertoire
Covid put the kibosh on many things, what immediately springs to mind is our ability to interact but in the realms of industry it put a lot of things on hold. In September 2020 we spoke with Rob Clunes about the aims for his company Motorhaus Garage and its project to build a bespoke car body that could be used on existing car chassis to personalise a car.
No longer is the company focusing solely on fibreglass bodies, bigger things are on the drawing board.
“We would build a chassis. We’ve noticed that there are a couple of companies out there that actually supply chassis to be welded by the user. We’re not confident with that. I’m not saying no one is capable, but our name’s on the line,” he said.
“COVID kind of put everything on hold and added a bit difficulty chasing investors because no one really wanted to spend any money, not knowing what was happening around the world,” Mr Clunes explained, now he is back on-track searching out investments for the project, which has developed substantially since 2020. “I’m actually dealing with an Australian investor at the moment. And we’re looking at a few things, a few options right now to get rolling. But I’m after more investment for the project.” What was once a project to make a new car body has evolved and while that concept is still being worked upon the company is also looking at building a full ground-up body, which includes a chassis design.
“We would rather have our professional welders do it so we can make sure it meets standards and then it goes out stamped.” The chassis that Motorhaus Garage is looking to build is a space frame chassis where the customer can then bring in parts from a donor car such as the front end, the diff and running gear. One that is definitely on their radar is based on Falcon running gear and one on the Commodore both with six-cylinder and eight-cylinder engine options. And Motorhaus Garage is looking to Australian manufacturers for things such as taillights, headlights, windscreens and other possible parts. “I’ve been looking around the world and there are a few people that do those, but they’re all based on TransAms or Corvettes from America. So, I’m saying let’s build one here in Australia based on Australian cars,” Mr Clunes said. “We’ll be looking also at some other ones that will take four-cylinder engines, which will come out of the MR2 or even a Honda, and we just have to get a transaxle out of a Volkswagen or a Porsche for it.”
24 | June/July 2022
